Nexen Tire to invest €829m in Czech Republic

ERJ staff report (TP)

Prague – Nexen Tire will invest €829 million to construct a new plant in the Czech Republic, the Czech government announced.

Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka posted a statement on the official government website, www.vlada.cz, on 16 June.

“The government has given the green light to a major new investment. Nexen will create up to 1,000 new jobs,” he said.

The region has attracted considerable investment – the Czech Republic and Slovakia host car plants from Skoda Auto and South Korea's Kia and Hyundai – and most production is exported to the eurozone.

According to Agence France-Presse, the new facility will be built in Zatec, a town 80 kilometres west of Prague.

The investment makes South Korea the third largest foreign investor in the Czech Republic, after Germany and Japan.

The new Nexen plant will be its second overseas operation after the one set up in Qingdao, China.

Nexen have not posted an official statement on their websites yet, but Yonhap News spoke with a “corporate source who declined to be identified”.

The source said: "A deal has been reached for the building of the Czech plant, but it is too early to go into details.”